It is Friday, and not a moment too soon, because this week has been about two months long.

From Matt Staggs (happy birthday, Matt!): The Facebook fan page for Peter Straub's new book, A Dark Matter, is asking what is weird and spooky about your town. (More on A Dark Matter later!)

From Nicole: David Bowie talks about what's on his iPod.Unsurprisingly, it's very eclectic.

From Cassandra: eight ancient drinks! Try them all!

From Zazoo: an amusement park dedicated to ABBA is opening in London. Wow.

From Julie: "Dinosaur had ginger feathers." Bunny will be thrilled!

Holly sent me a link to a different entry from Chris Illuminati, but then I found a more recent one about libraries and librarians. Like most discussions about libraries and librarians, it quickly becomes a discussion (in the comments) about hot librarians. Ha.

Have a safe and spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday.

The big news in the law library world (shut up, it is too a world) is that Lexis and Westlaw are going to revamp their services so as to look more like Google. That's the gist of it, anyway. This will be...interesting!

Incidentally, today is Data Privacy Day. Go do something private in its honor.

In more tangible data happenings, the largest book in the world will be part of an exhibit this summer at the British Library, and the Huffington Post lists some of the more gorgeous libraries around the world (with an option for you, the reader, to rate each library's gorgeousity on a scale from 1 to 10).

And lastly, for those of us who are unabashedly geeky students: I found the Open Yale Courses via a post on Metafilter, and am now trying to figure out a way to build some time into my schedule and take the English and history classes I always wished I could!

Tomorrow: Friday! That means links sent in by others -- maybe even you -- so stay tuned.

This is one heck of a week, let me tell you...

However! This weekend, Florida is evidently the place to be (and not just because it's getting cold and snowy across the rest of the country). The Miami International Map Fair (aka "the Super Bowl of Mapdom," according to the website!) is going on, as is the Gasparilla Pirate Fest in Tampa. Over on the other side of the Atlantic, the Fair of St. Orso happens in Italy, as it has for the past thousand years or so.


And finally, for certain readers in Massachusetts: the Common Man has an excellent analysis of Catholicism's connections to baseball, inspired by the recent story of Grant Desme. Good stuff.

(Very busy today, sadly. But lots of links!)

Here's a steampunky sort of idea: laptop covers which look like old books. Nifty, aren't they?

L.A. Weekly has a nice writeup (fully illustrated!) of last week's League of S.T.E.A.M.Paranormal Performance.

Sherlock Holmes is back in a big way, even influencing men's fashion. (Yay!)

The always interesting Bibliodyssey has a post on "Victorian infographics."

We end today with a session of "Did You Know?" (tm Sklar Brothers, who are not steampunk at all, but whose bit I am stealing for this section):

 -- DID YOU KNOW that writer and futurist Frederik Pohl has his own weblog?
 -- DID YOU KNOW the Silver Swan, an amazing example of automata, was created in the 1770s?
 -- DID YOU KNOW that Frankenstein and The Wizard of Oz were actually remakes of 1910 films?

Monday, yargh.

Has anyone tried the FlickrTab app, which lets Facebook friends see your Flickr photos on a tab?

In other Flickr news, the work of Michael Paukner is beautiful.

The work of Kris Kuksi is beautiful too, in a creepy, detailed, gothic way. Wow.

In literature, I am fascinated by this article describing William Dalrymple's new book Nine Lives.

San Francisco's airport has great museum exhibits; right now they're showing vintage gambling machines.

And lastly, your moment of zen, sort of. We also tried to reenact this scene using a puppet,  but to much lesser effect...probably because we tried to use a real boombox. Our puppet, not being very strong, had some issues.

Happy Friday, everyone!

From Bunny: "The Known Universe," a six-minute video from the American Museum of Natural History which is guaranteed to awe.

From Satori: Bizarro American Politics Week concludes with Cindy and Megan McCain supporting gay marriage.

From Julie: Datamancer has a new creation out - a wind-up steampunk laptop!

From Cassandra: a look at the endangered existence of literary magazines, and a tiny bit of hope for people juggling families, jobs, and schedules.

From Zazoo, the age-old question: Cats or dogs?

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone. See you Monday!

XKCD discusses the feelings libraries can induce. Wink.

At SpookyLibrarians HQ, we are fairly spooky and interested in the weirder stuff of life, and yet it never occurred to us to style ourselves as "clairvoyant librarians." We totally missed the boat on that one.

News research librarians are still alive and kicking, at least in Canada! Hooray!

Something to shock parents and teachers: texting may actually be good for one's spelling. OMG!

A new column in Library Journal by Aaron Schmidt is all about User Experience, and begins with a quote by Ray and Charles Eames. How can you resist?

We've mentioned the Biblioburro before, but the Polis Blog has a wonderful roundup of library transportation options around the world, including video footage of the Biblioburro in action.

And finally, for the legal students among us, here's a list of the top twenty movies you should watch. Let the arguments begin!

First off, here's a comprehensive site giving information on Haiti, including missing person searches, ways to donate, and more.

Zazoo and Charon are concerned; the Poe Toaster did not show up at the gravesite of Edgar Allan Poe for the first time in sixty years. Has tragedy befallen him/her? (Bunny's theory: someone else agreed to take up the torch from the original visitor, then got sidetracked, drank the cognac, and dropped the rose in a gutter. Or something like that.)

Bechyovinka is an "abandoned submariners' town" in Russia, and it looks beautiful although desolate. (Found via Warren Ellis, and really, you should be reading him and talking to the other people on Whitechapel if you aren't already.)

The 82nd annual International Inferno Races are afoot in Switzerland! Also going on this weekend: a marathon in Dubai and Burns Night celebrations in Scotland.

And finally, for the spooky among us: the Na Zha baby boutique collection, suitable only for Rosemary's baby and perhaps Damien from The Omen. Muhahaha!

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the Chrononaut Mechanism giveaway over at Steampunk Empire! Congrats to Velvet, the winner of the pendant. (Giveaways are fun. Maybe I'll do more in the future.)

I am trying to figure out if it'd be easier to wake up if Stephen Fry, as Jeeves, was the voice of the alarm clock. I don't think it would do much for me, but perhaps it would help someone else!

The Etsy Steam Team is taking applications, so if you make steampunky stuff, have at it.

Also from Etsy: Steampunkerie's soaps! The descriptions are well worth a read.

Neon O'Clockworks is a great name, and I'd think that even if they didn't also produce lovely images. Coilhouse shows some of their recent work.

The Breaking Time, which always has great stuff, has an amazing entry on a cinematic version of Dune that never came to be, involving Alejandro Jodorowsky, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Pink Floyd, and H.R. Giger, among others. Can you even imagine?

It's Friday! And a three-day weekend for some of us (including those of us at Folderol HQ).

From Julie: Neanderthals may have worn makeup, Mona Lisa may have had high cholesterol, and if you're terminally ill, the BBC wants you to donate your body for mummification. (Well, just one person, not everyone who's terminally ill. That might get interesting...)

From Satori: Dannie Flesher, the co-founder of Wax Trax Records, has died. (We made a pilgrimage to Wax Trax ages ago. It was a very, very cool place.)

From Cassandra: one stereotypical picture can overwhelm a thousand words, and Wagner, for all his many faults, had an intuitive understanding of how to write for language and pitch.

Have a spiffy weekend, everyone! We'll be back on Tuesday.

About Haiti, by one of the people behind Above the Law (required reading for anyone in the legal field these days).

ResourceShelf has published a really nifty repository of religious statistical information, thanks to Shirl Kennedy, who has her own Twitter, too. Also on Twitter: stats great FiveThirtyEight!

Attention, fellow history geeks: Egypt's pyramids may have been built by free men, not slaves. (Possibly free women, too; the article doesn't specify.)

And for those who like libraries and cats, here's a list of "favorite books" by library cats. My pick, of course, is the first cat on the list who likes Frankenstein.

Tomorrow: links from others, whee!

There are all sorts of things going on this weekend, but the best one, in my opinion, is the celebration of Sherlock Holmes's 156th birthday in New York City by the Baker Street Irregulars! It's a weekend-long event, and most happenings are open to the public.

Another announcement for the calendar: 2010 is the Year of Biodiversity, according to the United Nations. Speaking of the UN, they have some information on the earthquake in Haiti and resources for sending/donating aid to the country.

I found this week's map from Emily at Poesy Galore and was pretty stunned. Anyone interested in the gay marriage issue may be surprised as well!

A rather snarky look at "death shrines" along roadsides and city streets in the UK sort of blames Princess Diana for making these monuments popular. Really? Drive along any road here in the American midwest and I can probably point out a few.

Prepare yourselves: the Doomsday Clock moves tomorrow, most likely closer to midnight. I suggest stocking up with Wicked Wines to get through whatever may come.

Final reminder: the giveaway from Chrononaut Mercantile happens this Friday, and anyone who leaves a comment in the blog entry is entered into the drawing for a beautiful handmade pendant! Best of luck to all!

Attention, people of a steampunk persuasion: the World Sky Race is afoot, and I think it is our duty to be as involved as possible in the machinations and schemes and teams. For historical research, I found D’Orcy’s Airship Manual: An international register of airships with a compendium of the airship’s elementary mechanics on Google Books, thanks to The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire!

Where are the jetpacks and flying cars of the future? Well, the flying cars may be closer than you think. (This is yet another reason to get involved in the World Sky Race; who knows when that idiot in front of you on the way to work will get himself/herself a flying car? What then? Best to be on an airship, I think.)

When England was buried in snow last month, steam engines came to the rescue of stranded travelers. It's always good to have a steam engine on hand, apparently.

Beyond Victoriana is a new weblog dedicated to the study of "non-Eurocentric steampunk."  I am thrilled to discover this, since this is a topic which fascinates me and I think deserves all sorts of attention.

If you're planning a wedding, or know someone retro-minded who is, consider the steampunk-themed wedding invitations over at Royal Steamline! (Yes, there's a steampunk-themed wedding industry now, by golly. Wow.)

And lastly, if you're not interested in zeppelining around the globe or winning gorgeous necklaces or reading up on history that never was, you may at least enjoy Clockwords, a Flash game of vocabulary (and, it's true, a mad inventor type and some mechanical insects).

As Cassandra said when she sent me the link, it's rather terrifying that there's even a need for a National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. But there is, and it's today.

In a rather lighter vein, tomorrow is World's Fair Use Day, and we should all make something interesting on that day out of fair use materials, I think.

An examination of Sherlock Holmes throughout the ages concludes that he is immortal and indestructible. The article also mentions Young Sherlock Holmes and uses the word "steampunky," which delights me no end.

The negatives documenting the years of Andy Warhol's Factory group are missing. Check your garbage bins and storage shelves!

As winter goes crazy in the U.S. and Europe, the Guardian studies the use of snow in art. Neat stuff, even if you don't like winter weather.

And finally, the "Uncensored Bible" details some awfully risque behavior by some holy personae in the best-selling book of all time.

Happy Friday, everyone! It is cold and snowy here, but if you think America is in the grip of winter, I direct you to Julie's amazing link of Frozen Britain. They're not really used to that sort of thing over there!

Also from Julie: it turns out that ancient Egypt's dramatic eye makeup may have had some medical benefits as well.

On the other hand, from Cassandra: pet tarantulas may be very bad for you in ways you never suspected. Ew!

Also from Cassandra: 2010 marks the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, and we should not fear the coming decade.

From Josie: "The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock have been busy on an opera about Charles Darwin." WOW.

Stay warm, everyone! See you Monday.

As usual for a Thursday, I am stupidly busy, and it's also snowing (which is not usual, but interesting!). I give you the amazing, fantastic, awesome Growing Up Heroes website to keep you entertained while I get caught up with everything. (I may send some photos to that website eventually, since I am sure there are photos of me as a kid dressed like Wonder Woman and Princess Leia around somewhere.)

Today, those of us in the Cincinnati area are preparing for imminent icy white death (which means, um, 3-5 inches maybe? We tend to overreact to snow round these here parts). In other parts of the world, meanwhile...

- did you know there's a replica of the solar system along Route 1 in Maine? It's true! There is! And we want to see it next time we head down east!

- in Canton, MRX Designs is a fantastic spooky prop maker with a website and an Etsy store and more.

- are you versed in the strange and the abnormal? Take this quiz and see how well you can identify some of the odder holdings in the Wellcome Museum!

- I am wondering if I could get my friends and family to do something like this after I'm gone. Should I start making the list now?

Hi there. In my other incarnation as the Steampunk Librarian, I am hosting a giveaway for a gorgeous pendant over at the Steampunk Empire. Anyone who comments (over there, not here) is entered in the drawing to win! So go look, steampunky types!

In other steampunkish news, issue 10 of the Gatehouse Gazette is out (.pdf) and it's lovely, as always. Also, Ajax Steampunk is a new mad genius maker on the loose! And speaking of makers, it's great to hear that the Henry Ford Museum will be the site of a Maker Faire this summer. I can't recommend this place (and Maker Faires, too!) highly enough.

Alan Moore has started a print zine called Dodgem Logic, and is employing the assistance of former Steampunk Magazine editors! It is most definitely worth your time to read this interview and see what he's up to these days.

Let's all gawk at the Burj Dubai...er, that is, the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world!

The Oatmeal's handy guide to frequently misspelled words has been all over the interwebs lately, but it's also now in poster form for those of you who need to remind people about these words all the time.

Flickr finished its Best Shot of 2009 roundup, but how about your worst shot of 2009? I have several!

Also on Flickr: The Found's vernacular photos are lovely and intriguing.

And finally...the fact that we humans can read and understand the written word so well fascinates me. Now scientists are digging into the neurology that makes such a thing possible.